‘“We” tracked the ninu half a kilometre to its burrow and apparently when the bilby went in a snake came out, they could tell from the tracks.’
Illustration: First Dog on the Moon

Today I woke up on a football oval. In a canvas bag in the red dirt again. The romantic notion I had about the red earth at the heart of Australia still persists but the red dirt here is trying to ruin it by getting into EVERYTHING yet I am still having a lovely time.

Last night we all watched a documentary about the last Aboriginal people to make contact with white Australians, the Pintupi, and how they ended up at the mission at Papunya and so many of them died there. There were a lot of jokes people were laughing at in what must be a dreadful story to watch – I dunno. When the Pintupi decided to leave Papunya they founded Kintore, and then they left there to come to Kiwirrkurra. So much tragedy and resilience and loss.

Standing out here with my white fella boots in the slightly annoying red dirt I can feel the weight of who I am and where I come from, and how much I don’t know. I always thought I had a pretty clear understanding of how much I didn’t know but I had no idea. I am just starting to learn how much I actually don’t know, turns out it’s a lot. And I am probably wrong about that too.

Also everything out here is really hard to spell. But I’m not beating myself up about it I am wandering about having a lovely time.

Did you know that bilbies eat bush onions? I didn’t even know there were bush onions. I knew about the bush tomatoes, but I didn’t know that most of them are poisonous.

Things that would like to kill me today:

Dehydration

Taipans

Fierce snakes which is their name and also their nature

Mulga snakes

Mulga splinters if you ignore them and don’t go to the doctor

Poisonous solanums (bush tomatoes). Not all are poisonous but WHICH ONE IS IT?

There are various scorpions and foot-long yellow centipedes but nobody really talks about those. Hmmmmm.

This Indigenous rangers program is amazing and I am quite cross about it. Why didn’t I know? I read the ABC Twitter account! I read the Saturday Paper! I live in Brunswick! I had heard that some Aboriginal people worked as rangers but I had no idea it was a structured formal program across so much country in central Australia. It is a completely remarkable thing and white people should be excited about it. Aboriginal people appear to be.

One of the most exciting things I learned today is that the country where ninu (the word for bilby in the local Aboriginal language) live now is 80% owned or managed by Aboriginal people. Ninu used to live ALL OVER but that’s not the point, the point is that 80% is now Aboriginal land (it’s all Aboriginal land but you know what I mean). Anyway, this program is both effective and constructive and has furry animals in it it is great.

There was a mapping exercise today where they handed out maps of various bits of country to all the different mobs and said draw on this map where ninu are, where foxes are, where dingoes are. And everyone drew all over these maps and the scientists were all “this is the greatest day of my life” and everyone was really pleased it was great. Did you know dingoes might keep foxes away from ninu burrows? They MIGHT. Dingoes are great. If anyone knows of a dingo festival ping me.

My conversations keep returning to white people’s stories about Aboriginal people – most of them tend to be negative and there is a sense that “it is all too hard”. This is not just a good news story, it can be a model for how to do other things as well. This program rocks and is doing excellent things. Educate yourself. Vote for it, etc.

The most remarkable thing that happened today was our trip out to a different amazing location from yesterday. We were going on a Tracking Expedition and driving along in huge convoy of 4WDs. We were going to learn how to track ninu.

Yukultji Napangarti was riding shotgun in the front car. As she was looking out the window she said, “Oh that’s the crippled one”. Which translates to: someone driving along through the spinifix in a 4WD, spotting tracks about 15 feet away and not only identifying them as a bilby but also knowing which bilby it was. I was expecting to hear that it was also carrying its shopping and was feeling a bit better as it had a cold on Tuesday. FYI Yukultji Napangarti is Pintupi and first saw a white person when she was 15 years old (1984).

“We” tracked the ninu half a kilometre to its burrow and apparently when the bilby went in a snake came out, they could tell from the tracks. THIS IS AMAZING! You read about it (like you are now) but until you see it you just … you just …

Finally, I also learned that my T-shirt with all the bilby names on it doesn’t have ALL of them – OMG. And that if they said which name belonged to which language group (because some of them belong to multiple groups) the T-shirt would need to be a nighty or a mumu. Incredible.

Anyway, more tomorrow if I don’t get taken by a crocodile (they say there aren’t any here but they would say that).